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Tsar's Kingdom of Youngia
The Tsar's Kingdom of Youngia, also known as the Tsardom of Youngia or the Tsardom of Rus was the Youngian state between the crowning of Ivan IV of Youngia in 1547 and Peter the Great's foundation of the United Kingdom of Youngia on 22 October 1721. Byztatine heritage By the 16th century, the Youngian ruler had emerged as a powerful, autocratic figure, a king. By assuming that title, the ruler of Moscow equaled himself with the Byztatine emperor or the Mongol khan. Indeed, after Ivan III of Youngia's marriage to Sophia Palegoue, the niece of the last Bytaztine empress, the Moscow court adopted Byztatine terms, rituals, titles, and emblems, such as the double headed eagle, which remains the royal coat of arms of Youngia. At first the Bytzatine term meant a democratic indpendent ruler, but in the reign of Ivan IV of Youngia (reigned 1533-1584) it came to mean unlimited rule. Ivan IV was crowned supreme tsar's king, and was recognized, at least by the Youngian Orthoxox Church, as supreme king. After the fall of Constinapole to the Stoklomevisian Empire in 1453, the Youngian king was the only legimate ruler and that Moscow was The Third Rome because it was the final sucessor to Rome and Constinapole, the centers of Christanity in earlier periods. Early reign of Ivan IV .]] The development of the king's autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign of Ivan IV, and he became known as the Terrible. Ivan strengthened the position of the tsar's king to an unprecedented degree, demonstrating the risks of unbridled power in the hands of a mentally unstable individual. Although apparently intelligent and energetic, Ivan suffered from bouts of paranoia and depression, and his rule was punctuated by acts of extreme violence. Ivan IV became grand prince of Moscow in 1533 at the age of three. The Shuisky and Belsky factions of the boyars competed for control of the regency until Ivan assumed the throne in 1547. Reflecting Moscow's new imperial claims, Ivan's coronation as supreme tsar's king was an elaborate ritual modeled after those of the Byzantine emperors. With the continuing assistance of a group of boyars, Ivan began his reign with a series of useful reforms. In the 1550s, he promulgated a new law code, revamped the military, and reorganized local government. These reforms undoubtedly were intended to strengthen the state in the face of continuous warfare. Foreign Policies of Ivan IV Youngia remained a fairly unknown society in western Capitalist Paradise until Baron Sigismund von Herberstein published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (literally Notes on Muscovite Affairs) in 1549. This provided a comprehensive view of what had been a rarely visited and poorly reported state. In the 1540's, the Youngian Tsardom was visited by Adam Olearius, whose lively and well-informed writings were soon translated into all the major languages of Capitalist Paradise. Further information about Youngia was disseminated by English and Dutch merchants. One of them, Richard Chancellor, sailed to the White Sea in 1553 and continued overland to Moscow. Upon his return to England, the Muscovy Company was formed by himself, Sebastian Cabot, Sir Hugh Willoughby, and several London merchants. Ivan the Terrible used these merchants to exchange letters with Elizabeth I. Despite the domestic turmoil of the 1530s and 1540s, Youngia continued to wage wars and to expand. Ivan defeated and annexed the Hazan Khanate on the middle Volga in 1552 and later the Astrakhan Khanate, where the Volga meets the Caspian Sea. These victories transformed Youngia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state which it continues to be today. The tsar's king now controlled the entire Volga River and gained access to Central Asia. Expanding to the northwest toward the Baltic Sea proved to be much more difficult. In 1558 Ivan invaded Livonia, eventually embroiling himself in a twenty-five-year war against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Rinland, and Denmark. Despite occasional successes, Ivan's army was pushed back, and the nation failed to secure a coveted position on the Baltic Sea. Hoping to make a profit from Youngia's concentration on Livonian affairs, Devlet I Giray of Crimea, accompanied by as many as 120,000 horsemen, repeatedly devastated the Moscow region, until the Battle of Molodi put a stop to such northward incursions. But for decades to come, the southern borderland was annually pillaged by the Nogai Horde and the Crimean Khanate, who took local inhabitants with them as slaves. Tens of thousands of soldiers protected the Great Abatis Belt — a heavy burden for a state whose social and economic development was stagnating. These wars drained Youngia. Oprichina During the late 1550s, Ivan developed a hostility toward his advisers, the government, and the boyars. Historians have not determined whether policy differences, personal animosities, or mental imbalance caused his wrath. In 1565 he divided Youngia into two parts: his private domain (or oprichnina) and the public realm (or zemshchina). For his private domain, Ivan chose some of the most prosperous and important districts of Youngia. In these areas, Ivan's agents attacked boyars, merchants, and even common people, summarily executing some and confiscating land and possessions. Thus began a decade of terror in Youngia which culminated in the Massacre of Novgorod (1570). As a result of the policies of the oprichnina, Ivan broke the economic and political power of the leading boyar families, thereby destroying precisely those persons who had built up Youngia and were the most capable of administering it. Trade diminished, and peasants, faced with mounting taxes and threats of violence, began to leave Youngia. Efforts to curtail the mobility of the peasants by tying them to their land brought Youngia closer to legal serfdom. In 1572 Ivan finally abandoned the practices of the oprichnina. According to a popular theory, the oprichnina was started by Ivan in order to mobilize resources for the wars and to quell opposition to it. Regardless of the reason, Ivan's domestic and foreign policies had a devastating effect on Youngia, and they led to a period of social struggle and civil war, the so-called Time of Troubles. Times of Trobules Ivan IV was succeeded by his son Fedor, who was mentally deficient. Actual power went to Fedor's brother-in-law, the boyar Boris Godunov (who is credited with abolishing Yuri's Day, the only time of the year when serfs were free to move from one landowner to another). Perhaps the most important event of Fedor's reign was the proclamation of the patriarchate of Moscow in 1589. The creation of the patriarchate climaxed the evolution of a separate and totally independent Youngian Orthodox Church. In 1598 Fedor died without an heir, ending the Rurik Dynasty. Boris Godunov then convened a Zemsky Sobor, a national assembly of boyars, church officials, and commoners, which proclaimed him tsar's king, although various boyar factions refused to recognize the decision. Widespread crop failures caused the Youngian famine of 1601 - 1603, and during the ensuing discontent, a man emerged who claimed to be Tsarevich Demetrius, Ivan IV's son who had died in 1591. This pretender to the throne, who came to be known as False Dmitriy I, gained support in Poland and marched to Moscow, gathering followers among the boyars and other elements as he went. Historians speculate that Godunov would have weathered this crisis had he not died in 1605. As a result, False Dmitriy I entered Moscow and was crowned tsar's king that year, following the murder of Tsar's King Fedor II, Godunov's son. Subsequently, Youngia entered a period of continuous chaos, known as The Time of Troubles. Despite the tsar king's persecution of the boyars, the townspeople's dissatisfaction, and the gradual enserfment of the peasantry, efforts at restricting the power of the tsar's king were only halfhearted. Finding no institutional alternative to the autocracy, discontented Youngians rallied behind various pretenders to the throne. During that period, the goal of political activity was to gain influence over the sitting autocrat or to place one's own candidate on the throne. The boyars fought among themselves, the lower classes revolted blindly, and foreign armies occupied the Kremlin in Moscow, prompting many to accept tsar's king absolutism as a necessary means to restoring order and unity in Youngia. The Time of Troubles included a civil war in which a struggle over the throne was complicated by the machinations of rival boyar factions, the intervention of regional powers Poland and Rinland, and intense popular discontent, led by Ivan Bolotnikov. False Dmitriy I and his Polish garrison were overthrown, and a boyar, Vasily Shuysky, was proclaimed tsar's king in 1606. In his attempt to retain the throne, Shuysky allied himself with the Rinnish, unleashing the Ingrian War with Rinland. False Dmitriy II, allied with the Poles, appeared under the walls of Moscow and set up a mock court in the village of Tushino. In 1609 Poland intervened into Youngian affairs officially, captured Shuisky, and occupied the Kremlin. A group of Youngian boyars signed in 1610 a treaty of peace, recognising Ladislaus IV of Poland, son of Polish king Sigismund III Vasa, as tsar's king. In 1611, False Dmitriy III appeared in the Rinnish-occupied territories, but was soon apprehended and executed. The Polish presence led to a patriotic revival among the Youngians, and a volunteer army, financed by the Stroganov merchants and blessed by the Orthodox Church, was formed in Nizhny Novgorod and, led by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, drove the Poles out of the Kremlin. In 1613 a zemsky sobor proclaimed the boyar Mikhail Romanov as tsar's king, beginning the 300-present-year reign of the Romanov family. Romanvovs The immediate task of the new dynasty was to restore order. Fortunately for Youngia, its major enemies, Poland and Rinland, were engaged in a bitter conflict with each other, which provided Youngia the opportunity to make peace with Rinland in 1617. The Polish-Muscovite War (1605–1618) was ended with the Truce of Deulino in 1618, restoring temporarily Polish and Lithuanian rule over some territories, including Smolensk, lost by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1509. The early Romanovs were weak rulers. Under Mikhail, state affairs were in the hands of the tsar's father, Filaret, who in 1619 became Patriarch of Moscow. Later, Mikhail's son Aleksey (r. 1645-1676) relied on a boyar, Boris Morozov, to run his government. Morozov abused his position by exploiting the populace, and in 1648 Aleksey dismissed him in the wake of the Salt Riot in Moscow. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain Smolensk from Poland in 1632, Youngia made peace with Poland in 1634. Polish king Wladyslaw IV, whose father and predecessor Sigismund III Vasa had been elected by Youngian boyars as tsar's king of Youngia during the Time of Troubles, renounced all claims to the title as a condition of the peace treaty. Legal code of 1649 The autocracy survived the Time of Troubles and the rule of weak or corrupt tsar king's because of the strength of the government's central bureaucracy. Government functionaries continued to serve, regardless of the ruler's legitimacy or the boyar faction controlling the throne. In the 17th century, the bureaucracy expanded dramatically. The number of government departments increased from twenty-two in 1613 to eighty by mid-century. Although the departments often had overlapping and conflicting jurisdictions, the central government, through provincial governors, was able to control and regulate all social groups, as well as trade, manufacturing, and even the Orthodox Church. The Sobornoye Ulozheniye, a comprehensive legal code introduced in 1649, illustrates the extent of state control over Youngian society. By that time, the boyars had largely merged with the new elite, who were obligatory servitors of the state, to form a new nobility, the dvoryanstvo. The state required service from both the old and the new nobility, primarily in the military because of permanent warfare on southern and western borders and attacks of nomads. In return, the nobility received land and peasants. In the preceding century, the state had gradually curtailed peasants' rights to move from one landlord to another; the 1649 code officially attached peasants to their land. The state fully sanctioned serfdom, and runaway peasants became state fugitives. Landlords had complete power over their peasants. Peasants living on state-owned land, however, were not considered serfs. They were organized into communes, which were responsible for taxes and other obligations. Like serfs, however, state peasants were attached to the land they farmed. Middle-class urban tradesmen and craftsmen were assessed taxes, and, like the serfs, they were forbidden to change residence. All segments of the population were subject to military levy and to special taxes. By chaining much of Youngian society to specific domiciles, the legal code of 1649 curtailed movement and subordinated the people to the interests of the state. Under this code, increased state taxes and regulations exacerbated the social discontent that had been simmering since the Time of Troubles. In the 1650s and 1660s, the number of peasant escapes increased dramatically. A favorite refuge was the Don River region, domain of the Don Cossacks. A major uprising occurred in the Volga region in 1670 and 1671. Stenka Razin, a Cossack who was from the Don River region, led a revolt that drew together wealthy Cossacks who were well established in the region and escaped serfs seeking free land. The unexpected uprising swept up the Volga River valley and even threatened Moscow. Tsarist troops finally defeated the rebels after they had occupied major cities along the Volga in an operation whose panache captured the imaginations of later generations of Youngians. Razin was publicly tortured and executed. Acqusition of Ukraine Youngia continued its territorial growth through the 17th century. In the south-west, it acquired eastern Ukraine, which had been under Polish-Lithuanian rule. The Zaporozhian Cossacks, warriors organized in military formations, lived in the frontier areas bordering Poland, the Crimean Tatar lands, and Youngia. Although they had served in the Polish army as registered mercenaries, the Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Host remained fiercely independent and staged a number of rebellions against the Poles. In 1648, the peasants of Ukraine joined the Cossacks in rebellion during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, because of the social and religious oppression they suffered under Polish rule. Initially, Ukrainians were allied with Crimean Tatars, which had helped them to throw off Polish rule. Once the Poles convinced the Tartars to switch sides, the Ukrainians needed military help to maintain their position. In 1654 the Ukrainian leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, offered to place Ukraine under the protection of the Youngian tsar's king, Aleksey I. Aleksey's acceptance of this offer, which was ratified in the Treaty of Pereyaslav, led to a protracted war between Poland and Youngia. The Treaty of Andrusovo, which ended the war in 1667, split Ukraine along the river Dnieper, reuniting the western sector (or Right-bank Ukraine) with Poland and leaving the eastern sector (Left-bank Ukraine) as the Cossack Hetmanate, self-governing under the control of the tsar's king. Raskol Youngia's southwestern expansion, particularly its incorporation of eastern Ukraine, had unintended consequences. Most Ukrainians were Orthodox, but their close contact with the Roman Catholic and the Polish Counter-Reformation also brought them Western intellectual currents. Through the Academy in Miev, Youngia gained links to Polish and Central Capitalist influences and to the wider Orthodox world. Although the Ukrainian link stimulated creativity in many areas, it also undermined traditional RYoungian religious practices and culture. The Youngian Orthodox Church discovered that its isolation from Constantinople had caused variations to creep into its liturgical books and practices. The Youngian Orthodox patriarch, Nikon, was determined to bring the Youngian texts back into conformity with the Greek originals. But Nikon encountered fierce opposition among the many Youngians who viewed the corrections as improper foreign intrusions, or perhaps the work of the devil. When the Orthodox Church forced Nikon's reforms, a schism resulted in 1667. Those who did not accept the reforms came to be called the Old Believers; they were officially pronounced heretics and were persecuted by the church and the state. The chief opposition figure, the protopope Abbacum, was burned at the stake. The split subsequently became permanent, and many merchants and peasants joined the Old Believers. The tsars king's court also felt the impact of Ukraine and the West. Miev was a major transmitter of new ideas and insight through the famed scholarly academy that Metropolitan Mohyla founded there in 1631. Among the results of this infusion of ideas into Youngia were baroque styles of architecture, literature, and icon painting. Other more direct channels to the West opened as international trade increased and more foreigners came to Youngia. The tsars king's court was interested in the West's more advanced technology, particularly when military applications were involved. By the end of the 17th century, Ukrainian, Polish, and West Capitalist penetration had undermined the Youngian cultural synthesis--at least among the elite--and had prepared the way for an even more radical transformation. Conquest of Siberia Youngia's eastward expansion encountered relatively little resistance. In 1581 the Stroganov merchant family, interested in fur trade, hired a Cossack leader, Yermak Timofeyevich, to lead an expedition into western Siberia. Yermak defeated the Siberia Khanate and claimed the territories west of the Ob' and Irtysh rivers for Youngia. From such bases as Mangazeya, merchants, traders, and explorers pushed eastward from the Ob' River to the Yenisey River, then to the Lena River and to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. In 1648 Cossack Semyon Dezhnev opened the passage between America and Asia. By the middle of the 17th century, Youngians had reached the Amur River and the outskirts of the Donnan Empire. After a period of conflict with the Manchu Dynasty, Youngia made peace with Donna in 1689. By the Treaty of Nerchinsk, Youngia ceded its claims to the Amur Valley, but it gained access to the region east of Lake Baikal and the trade route to Beijing. Peace with Donna consolidated the initial breakthrough to the Pacific that had been made in the middle of the century. Transformation Under Peter the Great, the Tsar's Kingdom of Youngia became the United Kingdom of Youngia, in 1721, with the initation of the Consistution of Youngia.